Intellectualism in Australia

(the land of furry things that bounce around in herds)

What does it mean to be Australian?

No doubt we’ve heard the question a thousand times over, and it seems that no other country suffers the same amount of self-ambiguity as we do.

Well, for one thing at least, being Australian means having a delirious fixation on how the rest of the world sees us. The moment an international celebrity lands on Australian soil, weary and jet-lagged, the press pounces immediately, bombarding the poor arrivals with a frenzied interrogation: “So what do you think of Australia?” “How do you like our beaches?” And yes, we’ll slaughter the journalists who don’t ask. Miley Cyrus has an Australian boyfriend, ask her what she thinks of Australian men. The Twilight kids are here, ask them what they think of their Aussie admirers. And it makes no difference to our delicate egos that in response we get the invariably scripted, “Oh, it’s a beautiful country. The beaches are great. The people are so friendly.” Our desperate bid for acknowledgement comes to no surprise as a young, parochial, and geographically isolated country. We’re just going through the awkward adolescent stage; our complicated journey to self-discovery. The question is then, where are we going to end up?

In a courtly step forward from the infamous “Where the bloody hell are you?” campaign, Tourism Australia has offered the answer: Australians are a country of ignorant and tone-deaf Bogans, overly enthusiastic and stuck in a 1970′s time-warp. In what allegedly encompasses a selection of loveable Aussie experiences suggested by the Australian public, the new campaign, entitled “There’s nothing like Australia,” features everyday Aussies singing cheerily (and slightly off-key), well, “There’s nothing like Australia.” Cramming the staple icons of Australian beaches, Uluru, the Great Barrier Reef and the Opera House into 90 seconds, the ad depicts adorably simple locals, holding koalas and singing “There’s nothing like this bear,” and watching a mob of passing kangaroos, singing “There’s nothing like these furry things that bounce around in herds.” While the conservation of our reputation for friendliness and irreverence is undoubtedly important to us (hailing the likes of Kath and Kim as cultural icons), the stereotypical portrayal of crude and simple-minded Australians demonstrates our persistent disdain for culture and intellectualism, embracing our simplicity and undermining local academic, artistic and cultural life.

Australia has been diagnosed with a serious case of cultural cringe, harbouring an internalised inferiority complex that causes us to have very little faith in home-grown films, art and literature. We’ve all seen it. I remember recently walking through a video store and overhearing a man tell his wife, “Don’t get that one, pretty sure it’s Australian.” Try finding a copy of Germaine Greer’s international bestseller The Female Eunuch at a local Borders store without having to battle through layers of cobweb (if they’ve even stocked it at all).

Australia has produced a lot of cultural creatives and intellectuals that aren’t recognised in their own country, but are recognised around the world. It seems that we mistakenly associate intellectualism with pretentiousness and elitism, perhaps the most un-Australian characteristics there could ever be. Thinkers and idealists belong to the Brits, and because we’re no longer one of them, we seem to feel compelled to construct a national identity that is as far away from the mother-culture as humanly possible.

Captured in the spirit of the new tourism ad, Australians would rather identify themselves more as Bogans than as artsy-fartsy intellectual types. As beer-drinking sports fanatics, we hail our athletes as no less than gods, happily paying tax dollars to fund training programs, while our disgruntled artists and filmmakers lament the unrefined character of Australian people, and in return, are labelled as nothing more than irritable wankers. Artistic achievement is boring and intellectual pursuit is ridiculous because fair-dinkum Aussies don’t do that sort of stuff.

With national icons ranging from “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin to girl-next-door beauties Elle and Miranda, one must ask, “Where are the signs that we do any thinking in Australia?” As a nation more concerned with boasting lifestyle than achievement, outstanding Aussie writers such as Carey, Goldsworthy and Malouf, prominent philosophers like Peter Singer and Jack Smart, and not to mention an entire legion of talented artists and filmmakers, receive higher recognition overseas than they do at home. The problem then is not that Australians are stupid, but rather that we have no awareness of and no value for our higher accomplishments. Our persistent glorification and portrayals of Boganism and simplicity show no signs of slowing down, despite being an unrealistic component of contemporary Australia. The days of the 1980s “shrimp on the barbie” advertisements have long gone, so why are we trying to resurrect them now? Being Australian means a lot more than encompassing warm, earthy qualities – we are also capable of using our heads. After decades of revering only the practical and physical, harbouring little tolerance for the cerebral, it may be time to recognise that we are a nation of doers and thinkers, which undoubtedly makes for an exceptional combination.

Australia seems to be emerging from a difficult adolescence, still in the process of constructing its national identity, particularly in regards to the way the rest of the world perceives us. However, it may be time to shift away from the image of the laughable, uncultured simpletons from Down Under. When it comes to answering the insistent question of what it means to be Australian, we should proudly point to our genuine achievements and capabilities, rather than the qualities that make us the object of international ridicule, regardless of how warmly self-deprecating we wish to appear. There’s nothing wrong with being friendly, laid-back and down-to-earth, but promoting these golden Aussie virtues shouldn’t come at the cost of condemning intellectualism, culture and art, especially when we’re pretty bloody good at those.

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